11.2.23 - JR Interview with Dusty May

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For important information, visit Principle.com slash disclosures. I know we've been talking about coaching. Unfortunately, it has to deal with the Raiders, but right now we're going to switch gears. We're going to have a conversation with someone who is coaching right now. Head coach for Florida Atlantic.

They went to the Final Four earlier this year. We're being joined right now by Dusty May. Coach May, how are you? I'm doing great. How about you?

I'm good. Thank you for taking the time to join us. I know it's been a difficult 24 hours with the passing of Bob Knight. For the audience and everyone listening, not familiar, you spent four years as student manager out at Indiana. I guess my first question is how the heck did you end up with that position and how did you connect with Coach Knight? Well, I did a lot of odd jobs growing up and I'd done some miscellaneous work for the team doctor, Dr. Larry Rink, who's a legendary cardiologist. He wanted to help me get into coaching and he just told me over and over if I wanted to be a coach, I needed to go.

Obviously, I never called him Bob, but he did. He got my foot in the door. At the time, there weren't walk-ons. There weren't video coordinators. The manager staff had a lot of responsibility and you could, I guess, develop a role and ways to contribute. That got my foot in the door and then every year just tried to do a little bit more, but it was a great experience.

Dusty Mays joining us here at the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. Now, you mentioned that there were no video coordinators, etc., things of that nature. What exactly did your job entail for Coach Knight? I'm sure you were doing plenty of odd jobs even in that role. Yeah, as a freshman and sophomore manager, you're doing a lot of the menial tasks, the typical managerial duties. By the time you get to be a junior, you could be in charge of stats. You could be in charge of the video room. You could be assisting the assistant coaches in scouting. You go more into specialization roles.

Whatever you're good at, you went to that area. It was great training because, like I said, the staff were so small then. There were three assistant coaches and there was a trainer on Indiana staff.

There weren't staff like there are now. So, it was a great way to almost be an unpaid intern to get the practical experience that you needed to do the job when you were done. What did you take away from that experience? We obviously look at the basketball results that you've had coaching Florida Atlantic, but what life experience did you take away from working with coach Knight? I think he sets the standard every single day with focus, attention to detail, concentration, intensity. I think the one thing now, he was so stubborn with the way he felt like the game should be played. I think sometimes as coaches, we give in to maybe take it a little bit less than what we believe is the right way to do things or the right way the game should be played. It's always a slippery slope, but those are the things in addition to the preparation and the love of helping people and being a great teacher. No human being is perfect, Coach May, and neither was Coach Knight. There are people who were critical and still be critical.

What would you say to any individual who wouldn't know Coach Knight that may kind of maybe swing them in another direction of thought? I think when you look at the amount of love and respect and admiration as former players have for him, the people who really count, that would be the basis of my opinion. After that, obviously, we all have moments that we're probably not proud of, and I think all of us humans have that.

I think the good by far outweighs the bad. And so many people impacted so many lives and a method to most of its madness. It was very calculated. There are a lot of folks who can look and say, oh, there's so much noise, and he was such a big personality. And sometimes I feel his contribution to the game of basketball kind of gets pushed to the side because of his personality. When you think about the X's and O's, what would you say his influence has been on the game?

Oh, it's every level of every sport. I mean, even pieces of either on the NBA game tonight and pieces of his motion offense with the screening angles, with the way to manipulate space. I mean, he has a hand in all levels of basketball, all types of basketball, and then obviously his man-to-man defense. And he evolved, he changed. I mean, I was there his last four years, and he had even went from his traditional man-to-man defense to switching and pre-switching and doing some more creative, modern things.

So he always evolved, but his attention to detail and ability to teach, make complex people were probably, I think, some of his greatest gifts. Head coach of Florida Atlantic is joining us. Dusty May here with us. The JR Sportbreeze show on CBS Sports Radio as we talk about the legacy of Coach Bobby Knight. You talk about change, and we've seen so much change in the space of basketball. Just over the past 20 or so, 25 years from your exposure with Coach Knight up until now, how have you seen the game change? Well, it seems like it almost changes every few years, and you even hear so much about the European influence. And then you watch, and they're running some variation of flex or floppy. And I think the game is so cyclical, but now that the athletes are so big, the court's so small, that you have to have shooting.

And so obviously the rules of the game have changed, especially the NBA level. But yeah, I just think it's like everything else. It comes in cycles. For a few years, you see a lot of this, and then it phases out. And then you see this, and then it phases out. So I think everything just kind of goes in a full circle, very similar to probably the fashion industry where our parents probably wear bell bottoms, and some days they'll be back in vogue again. It's not as if someone's creating a new brand of pants. It's coming back around. Hey, Coach May, I think the bell bottoms, I think I remember them last in maybe 97, 98, so it would probably do, okay?

Well, if you see me, I don't have any fashion sense, so I don't really know. Coach Dusty May from Florida Atlantic is joining us. You talk about the changes stylistically, the way the game is played, but from your perspective, when you have to think about coaching, we hear the stories, we see it about the athletes being a little bit more sensitive. What are your thoughts on how the approach from a coaching perspective has changed? There's a little bit more kid gloves.

No question. It's difficult to coach players in front of their peers like you want to sometimes, because there's just not enough time to do it all individually. But yeah, there's so many factors, but this is the first generation of young people that don't need adults for information. And so if we don't tell them the why, then they want to know why before they do it.

And it's all natural. I mean, if you're curious anyway, you want to know the why you're doing anything. So I don't think it's all bad. But yeah, I mean, every generation of people changes and we have to change the way we communicate at times. But at the end of the day, the messages are still there, the unselfishness playing for each other. It's a little more difficult, I think, to get these young people to believe in it. Whereas I think when we were growing up with us over 40 or whatever the case, we just believed it because our coaches told us.

And now we have to convince them, we have to persuade them why it's best for them as well. And so it's just different. But it's going to be different in 10 years. It's going to be different in 20 years. So it's up to us teachers and coaches to evolve with how current generations are raised. Well, Coach May, I want to know how you continue to move your message along. I mean, you guys with Florida Atlantic, you all went to the Final Four last year. You're bringing back your starters. How do you keep the guys motivated?

What do you do? It's human nature, as you said, to kind of become complacent a little bit. Yeah, our issue I don't think has been complacency as much as probably a little bit too much ego where we've been told how great we are.

And I think it just gradually seeps in and it's not intentional, but it does happen. So sometimes you have to get humbled by the game. Sometimes you can figure out a ways to be humbled and still win. And so we're in that process. We know it's going to be very, very difficult, especially early on, because we're going to get everyone's best shot emotionally.

And so we're fighting it every day, but we're still trying to focus on us. And we're not trying to pick up where off where we left off in April. We're simply trying to be good enough to win early in the season and then grow throughout the year and be playing our best ball late. And I think sometimes when you bring everyone back, you simply expect pick up where you left off. And if you're not up 15 points in the first five minutes of the game, you're disappointed, you play tight.

So we've just got to refocus and realize we've got to climb another mountain, an even bigger mountain. Hey, Coach May, I wish you guys nothing but the best for this upcoming season. Hopefully we talk to you a couple more times and maybe it's back at that final four.

I know that would certainly be great. When you think about Coach Knight, just to kind of summarize and wrap things up here, just give me one final summation on what he meant to you. Well, you know, I'm someone that has no background in the game. I have no relatives, no background in basketball, but simply for the reason I worked for him, he gave me an opportunity to be in his program. I was able to grow and progress in a business where I had no connections.

And so I don't think that's common, but just because of what he created, people knew that if you worked under him, then you were, you're going to have a high level competency. You're going to have a strong passion for the game. So there's, I think probably a close to zero percent chance I'd be a college head coach right now if I simply didn't have the opportunity to be a part of his program. Coach May, thank you again for taking the time to hop on a tough 24 hours. I wish you nothing but the best with this upcoming season with Florida Atlantic. Okay, good luck. I appreciate it.

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